The New Student's Reference Work/Tyler, John

Tyler, John, tenth president of the United States, was born at Greenway, Charles City JOHN TYLER County, Va., March 29, 1790. He graduated at William and Mary College in 1807, studied law, and had a large practice soon after he was admitted to the bar. He was elected five times to the state legislature and three times to Congress. He sympathized with the states' rights party, and opposed the United States bank, protection and all limitations of slavery. In 1825 he was chosen governor of Virginia, and in 1827 he became United States senator and was again elected in 1833. From this time he acted with the Whig party, being an active partisan of Henry Clay, and in 1840 was by that party elected vice-president of the United States, with General Harrison as president. The death of President Harrison, a month after his inauguration, made Tyler president in 1841. His administration, at first favorable to the Whigs, was soon displeasing to them. He vetoed the bill for a United States Bank, at that time a favorite project of the party. Several members of the cabinet resigned, and finally John C. Calhoun, the great Democratic statesman, was made secretary of state. The annexation of Texas in 1845 and the passing of a protective tariff law in 1842 were among the important acts of Tyler's administration. In 1861 he was president of the peace convention which met at Washington to effect a compromise between the north and the south. He afterwards joined the Confederate cause, and was a member of the Confederate Congress at his death, which occurred at Richmond, Va., Jan. 17, 1862.